Hey kids!  Woven belts are back in!  My last memorable enounter with woven belts as part of my wardrobe was my Boy Scout’s of America uniform belt.  That was…awhile ago.  So when I saw that the woven belts were back in style I was excited to see what was new and fresh in what seemed like to me fashion item left best to Boy Scouts and extreme sport athletes.

I’ve purused a couple local malls, shops, and even online and found three that caught my eye:

(American Eagle Outfitters)

(Levi’s)

(Prada)

My favorite out of the three is the Bottle Opener belt from American Eagle Outfitters.  The webbing is really nice, and not only is the buckle a unique and interesting shape, it can also open a bottle of my favorite microbrew.  Gimicky?  Maybe…but this is the best implimentation of a belt buckle bottle openner I’ve ever seen. 

The second belt shown is from Levi’s and the last one is from Prada.  I saw the Prada one at the local Saks and while at first glance I was “Ah, cool!”  The more I looked at it the more it started to remind me of a seatbelt.  It is in fact made of woven nylon so…but that’s just my opinion.

As I look around my streets I notice that 90% of the folks are still dressing in dark colors and darker shades of neutrals.  It’s freakin’ June!  Ah…but I must have had a momentary lapse in sanity.  I live in the Pacific Northwest.  *smacks forhead with heel of palm*  Oh, right!  It’s still cloudy, somewhat damp, and with a mean temperature in the high 40’s.  Spring?  Oh, and maybe we should just forego summer collections.  Well luckily (insert sarcastic tone) the Fashion Industry is always one season ahead and Fall/Winter 2008 Collections are being shown.  Now’s a great time to get some ideas on how you want to drape yourself this coming season, or if you live in the Pacific Northwest like I do…get some inspiration for your next shopping trip.

Below are a couple of looks I found attractive while purusing through some Fall 2008 collections online, plus a link to the YouTube video for Hause of Howe Fall/Holiday 2008 photo shoot.

To the left here you see my first attempt at garment modification.  A couple of weeks ago I popped in to one of the local second hand clothing stores in search for a pair of jeans to destroy/distress myself and happened to walk out with two military issue, button up shirts.  I’ve always been drawn to military inspired design when it comes to clothing so when I found the two shirts and an idea hatched in my brain for a project I was really excited.

One of the shirts was short sleeve, the other long sleeve.  the funny thing  is I rarely like to wear either.  I’m more of a 3/4 sleeve guy.  I buy the long sleeve shirts with the full intention of rolling them up a bit; about to the elbow.  Short sleeves are too short for my taste.  The short sleeve shirt was $2, the long sleeve $3.  Bank breaker, huh?

You can kinda see from this photo of the finished product that it has button down shoulder tabs.  Both the long sleeve and short sleeve versions of this shirt had this feature.  From the photo here you can see what my grand plan was.  Having bought both shirts meant I had an extra pair of shoulder tabs, plus a whole second shirt of matching extra buttons.  I removed the shoulder tabs from the short sleeve shirt.  Then while wearing the long sleeve shirt I rolled up the sleeves to wear I liked to wear them and then marked where to sew the extra shoulder tabs insidethe rolled up sleeves.  I’d add a button to the exterior of the sleeve, above the rolled up cuff, to wear I could button the other end of the tab.  I’m sure you’ve seen this functional detail before on outdoor sports inspired clothes before.

As I mentioned before, the photo above is of the final product.  It was a fun project, my first time touching a sewing machine since middle school home-ec class.  For my first attempt at a garment modification I’m pretty happy with it. 

A month or so ago I was in the mall and I overheard this grey haired gentleman tell a young sales associate that he wasn’t looking for jeans with rips, holes, or worn out looking in any way.  That he couldn’t understand why anyone would pay money for jeans that looked worn out or falling apart.  Hehe…each generation has their fashion hangups I guess.

As for me, I’m not against wearing destroyed denim, but most retail destoryed denim is either too destroyed for my taste, or really…just more than I want to pay for it.  Which has lead me to the pursuit of my first Do-It-Yourself denim project.

Since this would be the first time I’d try my hand and destroying my own denim I wanted to find a cheap pair of “donor” or “guinea pig” jeans.  This proved to be a quest in and of itself.  I searched department store sales, clearance racks, second hand clothing stores, Goodwill, for at least a month before I finally found the perfect candidates.  They couldn’t be just any cheap jeans, ’cause what if I liked them when I was done?  They’d have to fit right, descent quality, etc., etc.  Then while at Goodwill looking for a five gallon bucket (I’ll explain later) I took a pass by the men’s jeans and found the perfect pair of broken in Levi’s 501’s..and get this, Made in the U.S.A.  Yahtzee!  

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Disclaimer:
Just to let you all know.  The processes and techniques I’m sharing here aren’t new or secret in anyway.  If you search the internet on methods for destroying denim you’ll find plenty of sites that give suggestions on how.  Ultimately it’s all up to personal preference.  I’m just showing you what I did and the results.
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Depending on how new/old the jeans are you want to D.I.Y. destroy will determine how much softening you’ll want to do.  The newer or stiffer the denim you’ll want to wash with liquid fabric softener more.  On a new pair of jeans I’d say three washes is minimum to sufficiently soften the denim.  On the last wash use an entire bottle of fabric softener; so go cheap on the softner you buy.  Since my Levi’s were already well broken in I only did one wash using an entire bottle of softener.

Now that my 501’s were all clean and dry, I wanted to add a more vintage tint to them.  One method of doing this is with coffee.  Since I work part-time at Starbucks one of the great benefits we get as employees is a free pound of coffee beans a week.  I’d be using coffee to essentially stain my jeans a different color I wanted to go with beans with the most oil.  Staining clothes, oil, you get oil on your clothes you get a stain, oil stains…get it?  The roast variety with the most oil content is espresso.  So I spent my weekly markout on a bag of Seattle’s finest; one pound of espresso beans.  I had the beans ground for a Turkish coffee maker, which is the finest grind available on our bean grinders.  It’s one whole setting finer than espresso grind.  I figured the finer the grind the better as to ensure to get maximum extraction out of the beans once the water was added.  Go cheap on the coffee you use.  I went with Starbucks because it was free to me. You’ll want about pound to twenty ounces of coffee

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Note:
If you want to coffee dye your denim be sure to choose a pair that lighter in color.  Denim that is too dark won’t show the coffee tint
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You’ll need something to “brew” your denim in.  Hence the quest for a five gallon bucket.  If you don’t already have one, please, don’t go out and spend money on one.  The whole reason for a do-it-yourself project is frugality, right?  Well, that and total artistic freedom.  If you’re currently lacking a five gallon bucket hit up some of your favorite local restaurants.  I got mine from a Panera Bakery; it’s a pickle bucket.  Just tell them you (or your child, younger sibling, etc.) needs a five gallon bucket for a school project.  Chances are that the kitchen gets something delivered in a five gallon bucket and you might get lucky like me and they’ll have one that’s about empty.  Oh, and ask for the lid if it’s available.

 Once the bucket was clean and dry I dumped in my grounds and filled the bucket up half way with the hottest tap water I could muster.  After a good stir, it was time to dunk the denim.  After a few pokes and prods to get it in there I was able to keep the pair of jeans totally submerged in the brew.  I suggest letting them brew for at least twelve hours.  So overnight is good; stir occasionally.

Once time is up it’s time to get the jeans in to the wash.  I suggest first moving the bucket to the bathtub before removing the now caffeinated jeans from the bucket.  That way if you drip or splash it’s an easy clean up.  They’ll look uber dark, nearly black, but don’t worry.  A lot of it will wash out.  Try to ring out as much of the coffee water you can before sending them to the wash.  Wash them separately (of course), and I did mine on medium load setting just to be sure there was enough water to help slosh the jeans around and get all the grounds off.  I also sent mine through two rinse cycles.  Voila!  The new color is really nice; subtle yet noticeable.

Ready, Set, Destroy!

There are really know rules on what you can and can’t do or use to destroy a pair of jeans.  It’s all open to personal taste.  I found that I could get most of the look I wanted done with a cheese grater meant for hard cheeses and a seam ripper.  The seam ripper is perfect for getting at one thread at a time.  If you’re wondering how to get that look of removing the blue threads and just having the white threads running horizontally you can either use your seam ripper and start removing the vertical blue threads one at a time or take your T.M.D. (Tool of Mass Destruction) i.e. cheese grater, or sandpaper is also a popular choice, and work it in a horizontal motion.  By working with “the grain” of the white threads you will destroy the vertical blue threads first, leaving the white behind.  Just be sure to stop before you start wearing through the white ones too.  I found it best to get the general shape of the destruction I wanted started with my cheese grater, and then finish it off with the seam ripper.  A caveat I found using only a seam ripper is that the destruction will look too perfect, and unnatural.  So have at ‘em!

I took photos of my 501’s along each step of the process.  If you’d like to see their progression and what the process looks like you can see the photos here.

It is a sad start to the week as the announcement is made that legendary woman’s couture designer Yves Saint Laurent passes away after a year long battle with brain cancer.  It’s unfathomable just how much anyone of us could have been touched by the work of Saint Laurent.  Even though you or someone you know may not have ever owned or worn a piece designed by him; the influence of such an innovative and distinguished artist transcends their work and influences countless others.

Rest in Peace Mr. Yves Saint Laurent.  We shall always be in awe of you, and we thank you.

One trend in men’s wear that’s been floating around on the runways for awhile now is the rising hem line of pants.  Below are a few examples from Louis Vuitton, Subscript, and Valentino Spring 2008 collections respectively:

Just last night I tried on a pair of jeans that were too short, they came up above my ankle.  I felt weird in them and my girlfriend gave the ol’ eww look.  Perhaps rising men’s hem lines is just a State-side phobia?  I’d be curious as to the public retail reaction if Daniel Craig, in his next James Bond movie prominently sported a pair of high hemmed pants, or dare I say…”man capris”?

The reason I ask is because while I see all the the runway photos and print ads from high fashion design houses of men in short pants (not to be confused with shorts) and then not seeing them migrate to the streets reminds me of an interesting story about the white T undershirt.  The story goes that in the year 1934, in scene from the movie, It Happened One Night, Hollywood actor Clark Gable removes his dress shirt to reveal that he was not wearing the typical undershirt as most men did in those days.  A radical style statement given the era.  Apparently the following year sales of white undershirts fell nearly fifty percent, attributed directly to the revealing of Clark Gable’s lack of undershirt and bare chest.  With this example of how Hollywood can influence style I can’t help but wonder, “what if?”  What if Daniel Craig in his next James Bond movie, or Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, or heck…Harrison Ford in the next Indiana Jones flick wore a pair of high-hemmed pants?  I chose these characters is because they play to particular male archetypes, smooth, action, adventure; men’s men.  Men I think most guys would fancy themselves being like.  If these characters did, would there be any kind of measurable increase in the acceptance of short-pants among the American masses?

So…in the spirit of Mike Meyers as Lind Richman in his classic SNL skit Coffee Talk: Please, discuss.

-S

I’m an aspiring “Denim Head”.  These days, whether shopping for myself or in the women’s section with my girlfriend, you’ll find me intently feeling the denim between my thumb and forefinger of a pair of jeans that catches my eye.  Then subsequently turning one of the leg cuffs inside out to look for the tell tale sign of selvedge or lack there of.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a selvedge snob.

Diesel, Seven for all mankind, True Religion…can I just say that pretty much none of what I’ve seen of these companies’ denim offerings really excites me?  It’d better be pretty darn special for me to drop upwards of $200 on pair.  What does have me tingly all over though is the recent introduction of the Vintage Clothing and Capital “E” lines from Levi’s.

Levi’s…arguably still the best known name in blue jeans.  Partially due to the fact you can find them in just about any department store, in some variation or another, from Wal-Mart to Macy’s and everything in between.  If you haven’t been to Levi’s website recently…or at all, I’d suggest you surf of over and check out these two lines.  In the today’s world of “fashion” denim can the ol’ Levi Strauss hang?  I’m gonna say, yes, it can.

A $501 pair of Levi’s?  Oh yes…yes indeed.  In the Vintage Clothing collection Levi’s has pulled some of it’s jeans from the ol’ archive (Making jeans for over 150 years I bet they got a few old pairs floatin’ around) and painstakingly recreated several classic cuts from the company’s long history.  For instance the Vault II 501 jeans, my personal favorite out of the collection, that each retail for $501 a pair.  Each pair is hand crafted and individually numbered.  Now I’d be willing to drop several hundred on that pair of jeans.

A little closer to the echelon where most “fashionable” denim owners financially dwell is Levi’s Capital “E” line.  Each pair is hand sewn and finished right here in the good ol’ U.S. of A.  The only two issues I have with the Capital “E” line is that most cuts are skinny.  I’m an outdoorsy kinda guy, I hike, ride a bike, etc., etc, so I actually have leg muscles.  The only non-skinny cuts are the Hesher cuts; available in straight or boot.  The MSRP for Capital “E” jeans is anywhere from around $140 – $200.

This is my take on it.  Sure…you could pay $200 for your Diesels, Sevens, or True Religions…but so did everybody else.  Pay that or more for a pair of Levi’s…you must have something special.  Does it concern you that someone won’t know you paid that much for your pair of Levi’s when they see the ol’ arches on the rear pockets?  Oh well, that’s your prerogative.  I’ll tell ya what though.  My favorite pair of jeans, and the ones I get asked about most when I wear them, are my raw denim (un-shrunk) Levi’s 501 Shrink-to-Fit jeans that I paid just $29.99 for on sale. 

-S